How Do Firms Manage Strategic Dualities? A Process Perspective

Beyond Simple Configurations: The Dual Involvement of Divisional and Corporate Headquarters in Subsidiary Innovation Activities in Multibusiness Firms

“…This is unfortunate because issues such as matrix structures and complex multiple headquarters organizations seem to reemerge in many companies (Birkinshaw et al 2016;Egelhoff et al 2013;Wolf and Egelhoff 2013). Furthermore, simultaneous linkages between a subsidiary and multiple headquarters can create overlaps of authority and interaction, and maintaining such redundancies is costly (Williamson 1975).…”

“…Drawing on selective hierarchical involvement theory (Poppo 2003) and the literature on subsidiary network embeddedness (Andersson et al 2002;Meyer et al 2011), we investigate drivers of divisional and corporate headquarters involvement in subsidiary innovation development processes in terms of the allocation of (managerial) resources to the same innovation development projects. We refer to this phenomenon as ''dual headquarters involvement'' (Birkinshaw et al 2016). We use the MNC as our research context and depict such a multibusiness firm as a complex organization with multiple headquarters and subsidiaries that are internally embedded (Meyer et al 2011).…”

Reassembling Local E-Government : A study of actors’ translations of digitalisation in public administration

“…These focus on institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983), strategic dualities and contradictions in organisational processes (Smith & Lewis, 2011), dilemmas, dialectics and paradoxes (Birkinshaw, Crilly, Bouquet, & Sun Young, 2016). In a study of R&D networks, Ritala et al (2017) discuss dialectical and paradoxical tensions related to knowledge exchange and network coordination mechanisms.…”

Alliance strategy: context, process, and requirements

“…One such example concerns manufacturing firms executing a service alliance stratgy to complement their traditional product offering (Neely, 2013). To increase understanding of the complexity of pluralistic strategizing, strategic management studies focusing on the intra-organizational unit of analysis explored among other things the management of strategic dualities (Birkinshaw et al, 2016), strategies for balancing intra-organizational tensions (Ansari et al, 2014), changes to organizational identity and knowledge (Corley and Gioia, 2004;, and combination of diverse strategic narratives within an organization (Dalpiaz et al, 2016).…”

“…This challenge of strategizing requires an active, context-aware and complex management process Jarzabkowski and Fenton, 2006). Research on strategizing so far has in particular focused on the organization as unit of analysis, exploring the management of strategic dualities (Birkinshaw et al, 2016), strategies for balancing intra-organizational tensions (Ansari et al, 2014), changes to organizational identity and knowledge (Corley and Gioia, 2004;, and combination of diverse narratives within an organization (Dalpiaz et al, 2016).…”